By Andrew Warshaw
September 25 – As FIFA moved into the second of its two-day executive committee meeting, embattled outgoing president Sepp Blatter, desperate to leave a positive legacy when he steps down in February, has urged his members to approve the reform process that would kick in after his 18-year tenure ends.
Although several attempts at modernising FIFA have failed in the past, Blatter says this time they must be backed in the light of the twin criminal investigations that have rocked FIFA to the core.
Failing to approve the reforms at the February 26 election congress would be a “betrayal”, Blatter suggested in his column for FIFA’s weekly magazine.
“I expect all member associations to fully support this reform process at the Extraordinary Congress in February,” Blatter wrote.
“To fail to do so would represent a betrayal of our institution, of football and of the millions of fans around the world that rightly expect the highest standards from those managing the game.
“Our goal must be to give FIFA, the institution, the opportunity to move forward next year and to build on the progress we have achieved in staging competitions and developing football around the world since 1904,” he added.
“If we do not act now, we will be putting all of that work at risk.”
His comments came as FIFA’s executive committee discussed a request by the ethics committee to allow it to provide more detail of corruption cases it is looking into. Currently FIFA investigators are only allowed to report final decisions and can’t name anyone under investigation.
Domenico Scala, head of FIFA’s audit and compliance committee, presented a comprehensive eight-point reform plan at the last executive committee meeting in July and published it a couple of weeks ago for general consumption (see http://bit.ly/1PAGNgr)
But nothing is simple when it comes to FIFA bureaucracy and it was decided to set up a separate reform committee under Francois Carrard, former director general of the International Olympic Committee. The independence of Carrard’s group has been highly questioned, however, given its make-up – mainly confederation representatives with their own vested interests.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1734908232labto1734908232ofdlr1734908232owedi1734908232sni@w1734908232ahsra1734908232w.wer1734908232dna1734908232